The invention relates to a furnace head or furnace throat seal according to the preamble of claim 1 or the preamble of claim 2.
For loading (charging) shaft or blast furnaces with a charge, a plurality of various charging devices are known. In order to distribute the charge uniformly over the shaft cross-section, rotatable furnace throat seals including an equally rotatable distributor arranged eccentrically to the furnace axis were, in particular, already proposed decades ago. With such a charging device, a high degree of uniform loading may take place without formation of accentuated bulk cones, in that the orifice of the distributor is guided over the shaft cross-section on two superimposed circular paths.
From document EP 00 65 084 B1, a rotary chute is known, which may be pivoted about two axes that are orthogonal to each other. One of the axes about which the chute may be pivoted, is the chute's suspension axis; the second axis is the chute's longitudinal axis. This device is intended to enable a furnace to be uniformly loaded, there being no possibility in such a rotary chute to control the uniformity of the loading.
A somewhat different arrangement from that known from document DE 295 15 419 U1 comprises a rotary chute having a rotatingly drivable cylindrical housing, several loading chutes which have different radial extensions and are connected to the outlet of the housing, and a distributing chute arranged inside the housing, the end of which chute opens into a loading chute and being rotatable with the housing, with the distributing chute inside of the housing being adjustable, and the assignment to the loading chutes being selectable. With this arrangement, the charging profile may be purposely adjusted; however, it is relatively expensive as far as construction and cost of materials are concerned.
From document DE-PS 868 913, differently configured charging devices for blast furnaces are known, the core part of which are a first hopper having a trunk-shaped outlet guiding the material to be brought to the edge of the furnace, and a second hopper having a perpendicular outlet, which feeds the charging material towards the center of the furnace. Also this arrangement is characterized by a high material expenditure; and, in addition, enables a desired adjustment of the charging profile from various charging materials in only a very restricted manner.
A further rotatable charging device known from document DE-AS 1 169 474 comprises a plurality of distributing chutes spread over the periphery of a circle, and, in addition, a distributing chute close to the center and an outer distributing chute, which are all filled by an appropriately guided hopper chute. In this arrangement, a freely selectable adjustment of the orifice towards a desired point of the shaft cross-section is not possible; and this device is also expensive as far as construction and materials are concerned.
Finally, reference is made to the charging device according to the document DE 199 29 180 C2 originating from the Applicant. This charging device is space-saving and material-saving. It enables an extremely uniform distribution of the material in the furnace throat or the furnace shell of the blast furnace.